“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed…”
It’s one of the most quoted lines in scripture, Matthew 17:201, Luke 17:62, echoed again in Matthew 21:21-223. But what does it mean to hold faith that feels almost invisible? And how can something so small move something so immovable?
I keep a few jars of mustard seeds; some half full, some nearly overflowing. I collected them as a reminder. Not of what I’ve achieved, but of what I’m still growing. Each jar holds a different season. A different kind of faith. A different kind of hope.
The Seed Is Not the End, It’s the Beginning
A mustard seed is tiny. Barely visible between your fingers. But it’s not meant to stay small. It’s meant to be planted.
Faith, too, begins in seed form. A whisper of trust. A flicker of hope. A single prayer uttered in the dark. Scripture doesn’t shame small faith, it honours it. Jesus doesn’t say, “If you have enormous faith…” He says, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed.”
That’s good news for those of us who feel like we’re barely holding on.
Mountains Are Not the Measure of Faith
I often read these verses and focus on the mountain moving part, but the miracle isn’t just in the movement, it’s in the planting. Faith isn’t measured by dramatic outcomes, but by quiet obedience. By the decision to believe again today. To speak life when doubt feels louder. To pray even when the answer hasn’t come.
Faith doesn’t always move mountains instantly. Sometimes it moves us, toward peace, toward courage, toward deeper trust.
Years ago, I decorated MDF letters spelling FAITH. They hung in my kitchen and living room, visible, but eventually just part of the décor.
When I was at a low point, I visited a friend who asked, “Where’s your faith?” It was unlike him to say something like that and when I got home, I saw the letters ‘FAITH’. That moment stirred something in me. I hadn’t noticed them in a while, until that moment when my faith stirred and in that same moment, I began to work at it again. I was led to the verse: Faith comes by hearing. And I remembered a time when my faith couldn’t be questioned. When I believed I could do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
That moment rekindled something deeper, not just my faith, but a vision. Out of it came The Eleven One, but six months in, the momentum faded. I felt bogged down creatively and spiritually. Coming back to it recently I made a conscious decision to leave the social media aspect out of it.
I took the letters down this year for aesthetic reasons, but it felt… wrong. Almost sacrilegious. I had planned to design a new set with resin, something clearer, more enduring. I’ve made mini ones (small beginnings) but the larger ones are a bit more difficult. I hope I get round to it. I think I’ve realised I hadn’t just taken the letters down. I’d lost the word. Lost the anchor.
That’s how faith has looked in my life; quiet, shifting, sometimes hidden, but still present.
What’s Your Mustard Seed Today?
Maybe your mustard seed is:
- A prayer you’re afraid to pray
- A step you’re scared to take
- A verse you’re clinging to
- A hope you’re trying to revive
Name it. Plant it. Water it with the Word (Romans 10:174). Let it grow in the soil of grace (Ephesians 2:85). And trust that God sees the seed, even when no one else does.
A Prayer for the Seed
Lord, I don’t feel strong today.
My faith feels small.
But You said that small is enough.
So I offer You my mustard seed.
Plant it deep.
Grow it strong.
Move what needs to be moved, inside me, around me, through me.
I trust You with the seed.
Amen.
Faith doesn’t always roar. Sometimes, it whispers. Sometimes, it waits. But even the smallest seed holds the promise of movement. What seed will you plant today?
- He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” ↩︎
- And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. ↩︎
- And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” ↩︎
- So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. ↩︎
- For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ↩︎
The Eleven One 
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